Ideas for exercises that help with irregular footwork?

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This is a bit of a tricky one since obviously irregular footwork ties in with pretty much every other aspect of the game but I thought I would ask the question to see what comes back.

Here is my issue: I am good at regular/ semi-regular drills in practice. But, in a match I feel as though my footwork really lets me down. Rather than move to proper positions I reach with my arm. Rather than have my weight on my toes it always ends up on my heels and I end up ceding the space at the table to my opponent. Rather than take 1 or 2 steps to the right place I find myself either taking lots of wasted steps on the spot or not moving at all.

Apart from just trying to get better at the game, are there some specific ideas for exercises that people have that help with truly random footwork as it happens in matches?

Thank you in advance.
 
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I'm guessing your semi-regular drill is like regular drill with random switching by the feeder?

You can do serve & open up exercise with random receive/block/counter from the feeder. Start with completely regular drill first, introduce randomness (earlier and earlier) as you become comfortable with the exercise. Then move on to receive exercise where the feeder can do serve & attack randomly.
 

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This is a bit of a tricky one since obviously irregular footwork ties in with pretty much every other aspect of the game but I thought I would ask the question to see what comes back.

Here is my issue: I am good at regular/ semi-regular drills in practice. But, in a match I feel as though my footwork really lets me down. Rather than move to proper positions I reach with my arm. Rather than have my weight on my toes it always ends up on my heels and I end up ceding the space at the table to my opponent. Rather than take 1 or 2 steps to the right place I find myself either taking lots of wasted steps on the spot or not moving at all.

Apart from just trying to get better at the game, are there some specific ideas for exercises that people have that help with truly random footwork as it happens in matches?

Thank you in advance.
There's so many, but often the simple ones are the best. Backhand block to the whole table is great, so you are constantly adapting and switching. Playing your topspins into the backhand side and the blocker just moves you anywhere, they can obviously start a bit easier and gradually increase the difficulty by blocking wider and faster.

Also doing lots of serve and recovering drills so random push back to you so you get fast at serving and being ready for a topspin. These are just 2 examples but starting simple and gradually increasing the difficulty or starting with a regular drill and adding in more random elements as others have said. These are great ways to improve this aspect of the game.
 
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Sofachamp:
Apart from just trying to get better at the game, are there some specific ideas for exercises that people have that help with truly random footwork as it happens in matches?
hi Sofa
I spend quite a bit of time coaching adults who never properly acquired the basics of proper movement, and now have difficulty years later in correcting themselves.
Here are my recommendations:-
Slow Down, here's why
Have you ever watched 2 strong players doing their warm-up.
they start doing fh to fh counter. They are not going super fast and they might even be chatting as the do it! Then you realise it's been a minute and they haven't missed. and to top that they are not hitting straight back to each other. every 2 or three shots 1 player breaks the sideline or sends one the body, and in every case his partner moves to cover it perfectly. They might go on like for maybe 5 minutes just teasing each other. 1 Rally!

You would have been watching the result of 2 players who have developed their reactions to the unconscious level where they move without having to think about it.

I know you see people doing drills at a 100 miles to improve their games. Its fun, the rallies may be short and its easy to feel that your getting somewhere, but sometimes a slower approach can be more beneficial it is still hard work but is focused more on building better habits.
what follows below can be adapted to multi ball if you don't have a suitable blocking partner
  1. approach this as a driving or counterhit exercise contact at peak bounce or earlier. Looping or big spin allows taking the ball at various timing points and distances to compensate for late or lazy footwork should be a no no. So Falkenberg thought enjoyable and good for movement in general is probably not the thing to solve your problem.
  2. Concentrating on hitting the ball at a consistent early timing from different positions with good weight transfer and recovery
  3. The first exercise I would recommend is 'N' or 'short long, short long'
    Right handers:-the feeder blocks/hits short to forehand, long to forehand then short to backhand, long to backhand.
    the worker plays fh counter to every ball, aiming for feeders bat on every ball. At first both players should concentrate rhythm not speed, 20 shot rallies are good. Looping the long balls is detrimental
    its a regular exercise but has an irregular feel to it because the combined sideways and backward-forward movement is so testing that one has to constantly adjust balance and footwork.
  4. the reason the exercise is so beneficial is that, though its quite hard work, it compels you to get to every part of the table using your feet constantly- if you can do 10 to 15 minutes of 'N' making 15 to 20 shot rallies, trust me, getting behind every ball in a normal game is going to be no problem
  5. the next 2 exercises are very simple fh to fh counter from fh corners and fh to bh counter from bh corner. For these concentrate on long consistent rallies trying to maintain open stance, with right shoulder and right knee in perfect relationship to the ball immediately before each stroke. Feeders task is to randomly send the ball about 18" to the left or right of the correct line and workers job is to faithfully get behind every ball. It's important to keep the speed down so that you high repetition and multiple chances for worker to move correctly many times.
The essence of this type of training is keeping it simple and easy and slow so that player has chance to acquire muscle memory through long rallies. Also leg strength will improve thus eliminating one of the probable root causes of lazy footwork.
2 or 3 times a week for 6 months and you won't know yrself

items 1-4, describe 'N' a regular exercise that will strengthen your movement In every direction.
item 5 are 2 very simple exercises which practice irregular movement to a surprise change of direction. It would help a lot if you included them in your fh to fh warm-up. watch partners bat and move appropriately to hit the ball and then recover both player just play steadily, when you can record some 5 minute rallies you are on your way
 
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some ideas:

anything that is fully random over the whole table. you can also block all table instead of attack. people rarely do this, but it's often easier to get someone to loop at you than to block for you. the footwork is identical so for your purposes it doesn't matter if you loop or block or hit.

one where both players play random but you are not allowed to play hard and must take the ball early. idk if that makes sense, but the idea is you can only win by placement, never power or spin. you often can play 20+ balls like this in one rally, and it's good for developing your awareness of the opponent's balance

have your opponent attack always to your middle/elbow/pocket no matter where you move. this is really good from a defending the middle standpoint. but also moving away from the ball is usually even harder and more of a weakness than moving towards the ball

semi-random ones are one to the middle one to either side. or the devilishly hard one to the middle one or two to either side
 
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Here is my issue: I am good at regular/ semi-regular drills in practice. But, in a match I feel as though my footwork really lets me down. Rather than move to proper positions I reach with my arm. Rather than have my weight on my toes it always ends up on my heels and I end up ceding the space at the table to my opponent. Rather than take 1 or 2 steps to the right place I find myself either taking lots of wasted steps on the spot or not moving at all.

For me there are 2 things important, which I'll try to name and then say more:

1. move back so that I can move forward (and not the other way round)
2. stand wider and lower

As you know, it is much easier to move forward than to move backward. Playing the ball on the hells feels bad. When the ball is in front and we go forward, the world feels right. So immediately after the serve step back/jump into position, step or half-step back. This makes difference when longer ball comes back, which can you also expect based on what you serve. It gives more space and thus more time to position to play, to attack. And if short, step forward is not so big problem. Similarly, if opponent serves short to FH and you can't attack, then after you play, step back immediately, to gain time for whatever comes. Note that I am not saying to stand more behind the table, to stand more back. But rather this is a permanent back and forth movement. The important difference is that the move-back is done in advance (and we have time there to do it), and the move-forth is done as a reaction. And not the other way round, because that is not really so good. Standing wider, when done together with that first point, gives good opportunities to "dodge bullets", to step to the side, so that you can have space to play a FH shot, for example. On some shots, where there is few time, you/I might gain some leverage by going down with the body centre as the arm moves, and that is more natural to do when we stand wider.

I know these are not exercises you asked for. I see it this way now, it helps me, perhaps it helps you too. Cheers.
 
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hi Sofa
I spend quite a bit of time coaching adults who never properly acquired the basics of proper movement, and now have difficulty years later in correcting themselves.
Here are my recommendations:-
Slow Down, here's why
Have you ever watched 2 strong players doing their warm-up.
they start doing fh to fh counter. They are not going super fast and they might even be chatting as the do it! Then you realise it's been a minute and they haven't missed. and to top that they are not hitting straight back to each other. every 2 or three shots 1 player breaks the sideline or sends one the body, and in every case his partner moves to cover it perfectly. They might go on like for maybe 5 minutes just teasing each other. 1 Rally!

You would have been watching the result of 2 players who have developed their reactions to the unconscious level where they move without having to think about it.

I know you see people doing drills at a 100 miles to improve their games. Its fun, the rallies may be short and its easy to feel that your getting somewhere, but sometimes a slower approach can be more beneficial it is still hard work but is focused more on building better habits.
what follows below can be adapted to multi ball if you don't have a suitable blocking partner
  1. approach this as a driving or counterhit exercise contact at peak bounce or earlier. Looping or big spin allows taking the ball at various timing points and distances to compensate for late or lazy footwork should be a no no. So Falkenberg thought enjoyable and good for movement in general is probably not the thing to solve your problem.
  2. Concentrating on hitting the ball at a consistent early timing from different positions with good weight transfer and recovery
  3. The first exercise I would recommend is 'N' or 'short long, short long'
    Right handers:-the feeder blocks/hits short to forehand, long to forehand then short to backhand, long to backhand.
    the worker plays fh counter to every ball, aiming for feeders bat on every ball. At first both players should concentrate rhythm not speed, 20 shot rallies are good. Looping the long balls is detrimental
    its a regular exercise but has an irregular feel to it because the combined sideways and backward-forward movement is so testing that one has to constantly adjust balance and footwork.
  4. the reason the exercise is so beneficial is that, though its quite hard work, it compels you to get to every part of the table using your feet constantly- if you can do 10 to 15 minutes of 'N' making 15 to 20 shot rallies, trust me, getting behind every ball in a normal game is going to be no problem
  5. the next 2 exercises are very simple fh to fh counter from fh corners and fh to bh counter from bh corner. For these concentrate on long consistent rallies trying to maintain open stance, with right shoulder and right knee in perfect relationship to the ball immediately before each stroke. Feeders task is to randomly send the ball about 18" to the left or right of the correct line and workers job is to faithfully get behind every ball. It's important to keep the speed down so that you high repetition and multiple chances for worker to move correctly many times.
The essence of this type of training is keeping it simple and easy and slow so that player has chance to acquire muscle memory through long rallies. Also leg strength will improve thus eliminating one of the probable root causes of lazy footwork.
2 or 3 times a week for 6 months and you won't know yrself
The issue with this plan is that it takes a pretty high level training partner to do it. People who need these types of drills typically can't find a training partner of that skill level. You'd need to hire a coach for it.
 
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The issue with this plan is that it takes a pretty high level training partner to do it. People who need these types of drills typically can't find a training partner of that skill level. You'd need to hire a coach for it.
they are counterhit exercises so really I can't agree, especially as the idea is to play at a slower pace using basic strokes - counterhit and block.
It is a lot of work but it provides a lot of benefit. You just need to persuade a partner to block short long short long for 10 minutes a session and be prepared to move your feet. Then switch roles - at the end of 6 months there will be two players operating at a much better skill level with their eyes opened as to the benefits of systematic practice
Its simple, easy to understand and just requires effort

Sofa has had the initiative to ask for a solution so we should give him credit for being prepared to work at any solutions he gets from this thread
 
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they are counterhit exercises so really I can't agree, especially as the idea is to play at a slower pace using basic strokes - counterhit and block.
It is a lot of work but it provides a lot of benefit. You just need to persuade a partner to block short long short long for 10 minutes a session and be prepared to move your feet. Then switch roles - at the end of 6 months there will be two players operating at a much better skill level with their eyes opened as to the benefits of systematic practice
Its simple, easy to understand and just requires effort

Sofa has had the initiative to ask for a solution so we should give him credit for being prepared to work at any solutions he gets from this thread
Maybe I need to see a video, blocking short and long on command seems to require a lot of skills.
 
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Maybe I need to see a video, blocking short and long on command seems to require a lot of skills.
did you notice that Sofachamp said :-
Sofachamp said:
Here is my issue: I am good at regular/ semi-regular drills in practice ...
but even if he had not said that I believe that long consistent rallies moving the feet is the way to solve his problem.
A little difficulty and hard work should not be an obstacle. The blocking itself. is also something that will hugely benefit whoever does it :)
 
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